Eagles Earn an ‘A-‘ for Their Draft According to ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.

The draft grades from ‘Draft Guru’ Mel Kiper Jr. are out, and one team that got a very good grade is that of the Eagles, who according to Kiper got an ‘A-‘ for their collection of players over the two days.

It’s good to be the Eagles. Coming off a Super Bowl title, they have no major needs and get to develop starters — not try to draft plug-and-play guys. They’re looking for impact depth. That’s why we saw GM Howie Roseman trade out of the last pick in the first round to move down 20 spots and add an extra 2019 second-round pick (plus pick 125 in this draft). That 2019 pick is an extremely valuable one to stash away.

Now, you have to laugh at the Eagles trading up three spots to take tight end Dallas Goedert ahead of Dallas (49) with the draft in the Dallas area. And my best comp for Goedert all along was Zach Ertz, so now the Eagles have both players. Goedert is the best pass-catching and most athletic tight end in this class. Remember: Trey Burton and Brent Celek are both gone from 2018, so Goedert is going to play. Philadelphia led the league with 110 receptions by tight ends last season. If Goedert had gone late in Round 1 — maybe to Philly! — it wouldn’t have surprised me.

The Eagles didn’t have a third-round pick due to the Jordan Matthews-Ronald Darby swap with Buffalo last year, so Philly had just one pick on the first two days. Fourth-rounders Avonte Maddox (125) and Josh Sweat (130) are talented and athletic. Maddox was a four-year starter who ran a 4.39 at the combine. Sweat had 29 tackles for loss in college and had a 39.5-inch vertical jump at the combine. I moved up Matt Pryor (206) over the last few weeks after people in the league told me he was going to move to guard. And how about the Australian former rugby league player Jordan Mailata going late in the seventh round? Philly is going to try to make him an offensive tackle.

The reason this class isn’t a straight “A”? Not a single running back (though they did announce the re-signing of Darren Sproles when the day ended). If that’s the only bad thing I can say, the Eagles must have had a good day.